Reflections

You think Kerala, you think water; just that the shades of the water have drastically changed this time. The clear warm waters which always beckoned weary travelers from all over the world have now turned cold, muddy and furious; lifelines choking on themselves in this beautiful state that I call home. It is my place of solace and I turn to it, whenever I seek for it. For those of us who do not live currently there, among the many things that make us home sick, the monsoon months of June and July pull at the nostalgic chord in us the strongest. Come August 2018 and I almost wish for no more rains in my beloved land. We have had enough to last us another 100 years! The heavy and incessant rainfalls that resulted in unprecedented floods have been wreaking havoc in this little strip of land by the sea and as I watched the news and read posts on social media a deep sense of helplessness kept growing inside me. The fact that family and friends were being affected was on one side but on th...

Last weekend I was brave enough to plunge headlong in to Bangalore traffic. Destination: HRBR layout, Goal: figure out an Improv show. The word had always looked incomplete to me… as if it missed a tooth. Even the dictionary doesn’t accept it and I had a block towards anything which the dictionary didn’t like. Yet, it came about through a random connection and I believe that random connections lead you to random experiences. So we took off, my 15 year old and I and I was at my victorious best having been able to find an activity which wasn’t obsolete or archaic or 'old – like- mom'. HRBR layout in Bangalore  is a newly developed plush neighbourhood in the city. Well laid out roads with no pot holes, the street bright with lights from shops and eateries and the smattering of green wherever there was scope for it; a far cry from the woeful look that most of our roads carried. I felt I was in a movie set, well, almost and something which never happens to me on Bangalore ro...

Scene 1 The Coimbatore-Palakkad bypass road at 3 AM on a Sunday morning It was the end of a drudgerous bus journey from Bangalore to Coimbatore and respite came to me in the form of three big smiles. I have to confess that I checked my phone again to confirm the time. I am not used to being friendly this early in the morning. Before I knew it my bags were taken from me and we all huddled in to the waiting car for a close to 1.5 hour drive to Attappadi.   Driving in to the gates of the current KILA (Kerala Institute of Local Administration)  in Attappadi,  previously known AHADS (Attappadi Hills Area Development Society), passing the familiar sights from just a year back felt more refreshing than a steaming hot cuppa that would have otherwise done the job. I was looking forward to the new memories that I was here to make. We quietly let ourselves in to the KILA guest quarters and I sneaked a couple of hours of solid shut-eye before waking up to the lively ch...

I have never had a dull train journey; no matter how near or far, how familiar or strange the destination. Every time I came back with tales to tell. This time was no different. I was out to meet dear family and friends in the southern part of God’s Own Country. The onward journey from home was pretty much uneventful as it was quite late in the night for adventures, having had boarded the overnight train from Shoranur to Trivandrum. I was at the capital city, early morning the next day and my time there, was, as always, a gorgeous one. I love the royal splendor which Trivandrum still carries with it and I love spending time with my friends there. The next leg of my excursion was to Tiruvalla in Parasuram express to meet my beloved Penguin aunts (nuns of the Bethany Order who have been affectionately christened so by my creative cousin). This trip of two and a half hours was more or less ordinary except for the excitement that I was unable to control each time the TTI came to chuck ...

Last weekend, I had a cat as a guest. Not that I am a big fan of the feline species but I was doing a very dear friend, a favour. She wanted to leave her pet with someone she could trust while she went away for the weekend and I was happy to be of help. This cat taught me a few lessons in the two days that he was with me. Till he arrived I was under the impression that cats were super friendly. And then he made his entry! Yogi, as he is called, strode regally in to our living room as if he owned it. My daughter and I went after him, like smitten fans to their object of admiration, to pet him, but he just dismissed us with a shrug of his handsome coat. It is not that he did not like it but it was pretty evident that he did not need it. He settled down in our house and started exploring his newly acquired territory, bit by bit. He sniffed at pieces of furniture, tugged at the door mats and carpets, jumped on to the couch to see if that suited him and finally perched himself atop t...

One day, many states A trip to the north eastern part of the country had been a dream for over a couple of years and I firmly believe that as the time gets ripe for a plan, things just fall in place. 8 th of October started very early and over the next 12 hours, I was in a state of continuous transit, crossing states of place, time and being; traversing through Karnataka, Delhi, and West Bengal and finally ending up in Sikkim. The vacation mode was on, the moment we left the trail of vehicles along with the chaos and the familiarities of our city behind us. By the time we reached Bagdogra it already felt as if we had been away for days. The military airport in Bagdogra takes you back in time. It operates as a civil enclave and connects various parts of north Bengal along with the north east states of India as well as the neighboring countries of Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand. To me the airport looked strange, resembling more of a railway station than a swanky airport and pr...

There are some years in your life that you just do not want to let go of. And the saddest part is that no matter how hard you try to pull it back it still moves forward and goes behind that curtain. Yet there are some other years that you would want to shove out of the window from the top most floor of your high rise apartment and they wouldn't leave till it's time for them to leave. It took me quite some time to understand that the clock of life follows its own rhythm and that I cannot tamper with it. That's what birthdays do to you; at least from that age when your birthday cake appears to explode from the weight of the candles on it. They make you see the truth more clearly with the passage of time. I celebrated my 43rd birthday a few days ago and looking back, I noticed that every year after I turned forty has been not so easy on my poor heart. It would get worked up with anxiety and worry; right from about the strands of grey which seemed to multiply with no conc...